Brittany Cartwrightfelt like a princess on her wedding day, marrying longtime loveJax Taylorin an actual palace.

TheVanderpump Rulescostars said “I do” in amagical, fairy-tale themed ceremonyin front of 240 guests at the Kentucky Castle in the bride’s home state Saturday evening. But before the SUR bartender became her Prince Charming, he broke her heart — and they faced plenty of haters hoping to tear down their relationship.

“We’re stronger and happier than we’ve ever been,” Cartwright, 30, told PEOPLE exclusively just before the big day. “We’ve been through a lot, but we came out on the other side. I feel like we’ve just gotten stronger and stronger as we’ve had to deal with any kind of negative situations that come our way. I feel like we’ve grown from it.”

“We know ourselves better than anybody else,” added Taylor, 39. “We really didn’t listen to much of the trash back in the day. We know we love each. We know we want to be together. We’re just really excited. Just really happy with where we are right now.”

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Jax and Brittany wedding

“I was anti-marriage. I was never, never, ever going to get married. It was not in the cards for me,” Taylor admitted. “Nothing against marriage, just it wasn’t for me. Then I met Brittany, and everything changed. … I dated before and I never even thought about it before. Right when I met Brittany, I knew. If I’m going to do it, this is the one.”

The bachelor was besotted — and asked her to move across the country from her family farm to his Los Angeles apartment the very next day.

“I just knew it was meant to be,” he said.

“We crossed oceans together,” Cartwright said. “We’ve gone really far.”

“We’ve battled, but we know that we definitely want to be together, obviously, and we’re very happy,” Taylor added.

“At the end of the day,” Cartwright concluded, “all that we think is all that matters, right?”

source: people.com